jyTilitary  (j^der 


of  tl»e 


loyal 


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•*•     XJ^^ed  States. 


COMMANDERY  OF  THE  DISTRICT  OF  COLUMBIA. 


m&t&b&fsfr 


WAR    PAPER   9. 


cidertfs  of  %  Blockade,  1861-'65. 


Military  ©fder  of  t^  bo^al  tae^ion 


United  §tate$. 


COMMA]\lDEl(Y  OF  THE  DI^lCT  OF  ffl)LUl|BIA. 


WAR    PAPERS. 


9 

(Incidents    of  the      -stockade. 

PREPARED  BY  COMPANION 

Rear  Admiral 

JOHN    J.    ALMY, 

U.    S.    Navy, 

AND 

READ  AT  THE  STATED  MEETING  OF  FEBRUARY  3,   1892. 


Digitized  by  the  Internet  Archive 
in  2013 


http://archive.org/details/incidentsofblockOOalmy 


i 


§nMmU  oi  t\u  §lodtaik 

1861-1865. 


These  were  many  and  various.  The  writer  commanded  the 
U.  S.  Steamer  Connecticut  on  the  blockade  oft*  Wilmington, 
N.  C,  for  fourteen  months,  and  during  that  period  captured 
and  sent  in  four  steamers,  viz.,  Juno,  Scotia,  Minnie,  and 
Greyhound,  with  valuable  cargoes ;  vessels  and  cargoes  ad- 
judged worth  $1,063,352.49.  The  Connecticut  run  ashore 
and  destroyed  four  other  blockade-runners,  viz.,  Phantom, 
Herald,    Ceres,   and  Diamond. 

The  blockade- runners  would  always  select  dark  nights  to  run 
in  and  out,  and  certain  stages  of  the  moon  ;  generally  between 
the  last  and  first  quarters  of  the  moon,  when  it  set  early  and 
rose  late.  This  moon  arrangement  was  always  a  matter  of 
great  importance  to  them.  Then  a  tolerably  high  tide,  also, 
entered  into  the  calculation. 

The  first  blockade-runner  captured  by  the  Comtecticut  was 
the  Juno.  It  was  a  bright  pleasant  morning  oft*  shore,  and  out 
about  70  miles  from  Wilmington,  when,  at  daylight,  she  was 
discovered.  Chase  was  immediately  given,  and  in  three  hours 
she  was  a  prize.  When  the  captain  was  brought  on  board  he 
was  greeted  with  the  usual  "  Good  morning,"  with  the  addi- 
tional remark,  "  Glad  to  see  you,"  to  which  he  replied,  "D — d 
if  I  am  glad  to  see  you."  "  I  suppose  not,"  I  remarked.  I 
didn't  blame  him  at  all,  for  to  him  it  was  becoming  acquainted 
under  very  unpleasant  conditions. 

A  week  before,  the  Juno  had  safely  run  the  blockade  in — had 
discharged    her   English    cargo,  had  taken  on  board  the    usual 


Confederate  American  cargo  of  cotton,  tobacco,  and  turpentine, 
and  was  now  bound  to  Nassau. 

Among  other  letters  found  on  board  of  the  Juno  was  one  left 
open  and  unfinished,  commenced  at  Wilmington  and  addressed 
to  the  owners  in  England,  in  which  the  captain  described  the 
successfully  running  in  by  the  sleepy-headed  Yankees  at  night, 
and  that  he  expected  to  be  lucky  enough  in  running  out,  of 
which  he  would  inform  them  upon  his  arrival  at  Nassau,  when 
he  would  close  and  send  his  letter.  But  the  said  letter  never 
reached  Nassau  nor  England. 

These  blockade-runners  were  all  English  steamers,  and  were 
painted  lead-color,  which  was  to  prevent  their  being  discovered 
at  night,  when  running  close  in  along  the  land.  The  fire  and 
steam  arrangements  were  for  burning  the  soft  English  coal, 
which  always  made  much  black  smoke,  by  which  they  could 
be  discovered  a  long  distance  in  the  day.  The  smoke  could 
sometimes  be  seen  before  the  vessel  was  visible. 

We  have  heard  and  we  have  read  of  the  excitement  on  board 
of  a  whale-ship  produced  by  the  cry  of  the  look-out  at  the 
mast-head — "  Spout  O  !  "  A  whale  in  sight;  boats  are  quickly 
got  ready  for  lowering,  with  harpoons,  lines  and  lances,  and 
the  ship  steered  for  the  prey. 

On  board  of  the  Connecticut,  when  the  look-out  at  the 
mast-head  sung  out,  "Black  smoke!"  all  was  commotion. 
Every  one  was  upon  his  feet,  and  all  eyes  and  the  ship's  head 
turned  in  the  reported  direction;  all  steam  was  raised,  and -the 
chase  commenced. 

A  chase  of  this  kind  once  lasted  Jifteen  hours.  Black  smoke 
was  discovered  at  sunrise,  pursuit  was  commenced,  and  contin- 
ued until  after  dark,  when  the  bockade-runner  was  lost  sight 
of.  But  the  Connecticut  got  within  two  miles  of  her,  making 
a  gain  of  teit  miles,  as  it  was  estimated  that  she  was  twelve 
miles  off  when   first  discovered.     To  enable   her  to  escape   she 


had  to  throw  overboard  nearly  all  her  cargo,  which  comprised 
English  goods,  as  she  was  bound  in.  We  passed  through  and 
by  innumerable  bales  and  boxes  during  the  day,  some  of  which 
we  perceived  contained  shoes,  which  caused  a  waggish  sailor  to 
remark  :  "  Perhaps  if  we  could  get  and  put  on  some  of  those 
shoes,  we  could  run  faster  and  catch  that  fellow." 

We  will  continue  with  the  further  movements  of  this  block- 
ade-runner steamer,  which  will  be  found  interesting.  Subse- 
quently she  proved  to  be  the  Tristam  Shandy. 

As  has  been  stated,  she  threw  overboard  nearly  all  her  cargo, 
went  into  Nassau,  filled  up  hurriedly  with  another  cargo  and 
steamed  for  Wilmington,  ran  the  blockade,  and  got  in.  In 
order  to  have  the  dark  of  the  moon,  she  unloaded  with  great 
dispatch,  and  loaded  with  the  usual  Confederate  cargo  and 
sailed  for  Nassau.  When  she  got  a  few  miles  outside  she  was 
discovered  by  the  U.  S.  Steamer  Pequot,  which  gave  chase. 
It  soon  became  very  dark,  and  the  Pequot  lost  sight  of  her,  but 
continued  the  chase  on  the  same  course  as  when  the  blockade- 
runner  was  last  seen.  In  a  few  minutes  a  tremendous  volume 
of  black  smoke  from  the  soft  coal  came  into  the  faces  of  the 
people  on  board  the  Pequot,  and  in  a  minute  afterwards  she 
was  up  with  the  blockade-runner,  and  the  Tristam  Shandy 
was  captured.  She  had  broken  down.  The  captain  of  her 
stated  that  the  Connecticut  had  chased  her  so  hard  those  Jifteen 
hours  that  the  machinery  was  very  much  out  of  order,  and  that 
he  hadn't  time  to  adjust  and  repair  it,  as  he  had  to  hurry  so 
much  to  get  out  of  Nassau  and  Wilmington  in  order  to  save  the 
moon  and  the  tides  ;  so  the  Connecticut  was  the  remote  cause 
of  the  capture  of  the  Tristam  Shandy  with  her  valuable  cargo. 
Both  vessel  and  cargo  were  adjudged  by  the  Prize  Court  to  be 
worth  $375,000.  Added  to  this  was  the  cargo  thrown  over- 
board when  chased  by  the  Connecticut,  all  of  which  was  a 
great  loss  to  the  Confederate  cause. 


One  Saturday  night,  off  the  Western  Bar,  one  of  the  in- 
lets into  Wilmington,  was  an  exciting  one  for  blockaders,  and 
for  blockade-runners  also.  There  was  no  time  to  indulge  in 
Saturday-night  songs  and  revelries,  and  to  drink  to  "  Sweet- 
hearts and   Wives." 

We-  knew  that  blockade-runners  were  expected.  The  tides 
and  the  state  of  the  moon  were  favorable  for  them.  The  moon 
went  down  early.  Orders  had  been  given  that  at  that  time 
every  vessel  should  have  her  anchor  up,  with  steam  up,  and 
ready  to  start.  The  vessels,  four  in  number — Connecticut, 
Georgia,  E??ima,  and  Buckingham — were  swinging  about, 
and  a  little  steam  used  to  keep  them  in  their  assigned  positions. 
They  were  like  restless  race-horses  awaiting  the  order  to  "  Go  !" 

The  officer  of  the  deck  was  lying  down  upon  his  stomach 
on  the  hurricane-deck  sweeping  the  horizon  with  his  glass 
when  he  reported  that  there  was  something  moving  upon  the 
water  like  a  blockade-runner.  The  commander  looked,  and 
confirmed  the  report.  Orders  were  immediately  given  to  start, 
and  move  with  full  speed.  Two  shotted  guns  were  fired 
at  her,  when  she  changed  her  course,  stood  oft'  under  full 
speed,  and  was  lost  sight  of.  In  this  move  she  met  with 
the  Georgia,  which  vessel  started  after  her  and  drove  her 
oft".  She  was  faster  than  most  of  our  vessels,  and  in  the 
dark,  as  it  was,  she  could  soon  run  out  of  sight.  Continu- 
ing in  her  persistency  to  enter,  the  Emma  met  her  and 
drove  her  off.  But  she  wasn't  going  to  give  it  up.  She 
had  now  stood  pretty  well  over  towards  Smith's  Island, 
thinking  she  might  get  in  by  running  close  along  the  land. 
And  now  the  fotirth  time  she  attempted  it,  when  the  Buck- 
ingham espied  her,  opened  her  guns,  and  drove  her  off.  As 
we  didn't  see  nor  hear  anything  more  of  her  that  night, 
we  supposed  that  she  had  gone  out  to  sea,  to  try  it  per- 
haps   another    night,    which    they    frequently    did. 


But  at  day-break  the  next  morning,  lo  and  behold !  there 
was  the  steamer  hard  and  fast  ashore.  She  had  been  forced 
off  and  shoved  over  so  many  times  that  she  was  nearer  the 
land  than  she  calculated,  and  had  run  badly  ashore.  At- 
tempts were  made  by  our  vessels  to  get  her  off,  which  was 
found  impossible.  A  few  days  after,  a  gale  of  wind  came  on, 
which  broke  the  vessel  to  pieces.  She  was  found  to  be  the 
noted  English  blockade-runner  Herald.  The  officers  and  crew 
had  left  in  their  boats,  and  landed  on  Smith's  Island  in  the 
dark    of   the  night. 

This  steamer  had  been  running  between  Bermuda  and  Charles- 
ton, had  made  ten  or  twelve  successful  trips,  .and  had  paid 
for  herself  several  times  over.  She  had  now  changed  her 
blockade-running  route  to  between  Nassau  and  Wilmington, 
which  proved  bad  luck  to  her,  as  she  was  wrecked  on  this 
her    first   trip. 

And  now  came  up  the  question  of  law  versus  common  sense. 

The  Connecticut  had  captured  a  schooner  laden  with  salt, 
a  cargo  not  worth  more  than  three  or  four  hundred  dollars. 
By  throwing  the  salt  overboard,  five  or  six  thousand  dollars' 
worth  of  valuable  goods  could  be  taken  from  the  Herald  and 
put  on  board  of  the  schooner,  which  was  done.  This  would 
naturally  be  deemed  common  sense.  But  the  law  says  that 
"  No  person  in  the  Navy  shall  take  out  of  a  prize  any  goods 
before  the  same  shall  be  adjudged  lawful  prize  by  a  com- 
petent  court." 

This  proceeding  was  duly  reported  to  the  Navy  Depart- 
ment, but  nothing  was  ever  said  in  the  way  of  approval  or 
disapproval    of  the    matter. 

The  chief  engineer  of  the  Connecticut  was  a  zealous,  pa- 
triotic person,  and  was  well  up  to  his  duties  in  every  particular. 
In  the  hard  chase  after  the  Tristam  Shandy  of  fifteen  hours 
which    has    been    described,    it  occurred  to  the  captain  to  step 


down  into  the  boiler  and  engine  rooms  to  take  a  look  at 
matters.  Upon  reaching  there,  the  chief  engineer  remarked: 
"  Captain,  these  boilers  have  now  been  run  for  many  months 
in  chasing  blockade-runners,  and  they  are  getting  tender. 
They  are  under  a  heavy  strain  to-day,  and  I  advise  you  to 
keep  on  deck."  The  captain  replied  that  if  there  was  dan- 
ger, he  didn't  know  why  he  shouldn't  share  it  with  the  engineer. 
"  But,"  said  the  engineer,  "  your  post  of  duty  is  on  deck, 
and  mine  is  here.  I  shipped  for  this,  and  if  the  boilers  go, 
it  is  my  privilege  and  my  duty  to  stick  to  and  go  with 
them."  Upon  reflection,  and  deeming  "  discretion  the  better 
part  of  valor,"  the  captain  left,  and  went  on  deck.  The 
boilers  stood  it,  however.  Here  was  a  brave  typical  engi- 
neer,   of   which    the    service    can    boast   of  many    such. 

Love  and  matrimony  once  came  in  as  an  "incident  in  the 
course  of  this  blockade  service.  Sea-ports  might  be  blockaded, 
but  loving  hearts  never,  though  hard-hearted  parents  sometimes 
attempt  it. 

When  the  Greyhound  was  captured— vessel  and  cargo  ad-, 
judged  by  the  Prize  Court  to  be  worth  about  half  a  million  of 
dollars — among  the  passengers  on  board  was  the  noted  Belle 
Boyd,  who  had  been  a  prisoner  before,  in  the  war,  in  the  hands 
of  Genl.  Butler,  between  whom  there  had  been  a  considerable 
amount  of  "  unpleasantness,"  which  had  made  her  somewhat 
famous  by  her  general  conduct,  with  her  speeches  and  pertness. 
The  Greyhound  was  taken  to  Boston,  and,  after  having  been 
adjudged  lawful  prize  and  condemned,  Belle  Boyd,  with  the 
other  passengers,  the  officers  and  crew,  were  all  released  and 
permitted  to  go  where  they  pleased.  From  Boston  they  went 
to  Halifax,  and  from  thence  to  England. 

The  prize-master  of  the  Greyhound  was  a  young  volunteer 
officer,  with  the  rank  of  acting-master  in  the  United  States 
Navy — rather  a  good-looking  fellow,     ft   seems   that  while  on 


board  of  the  Gi-eyhoutid  together  he  and  Belle  Boyd  became 
greatly  interested  in  each  other,  which  ripened  into  affectionate 
friendship.  After  they  separated  at  Boston,  a  fervent  corre- 
spondence sprung  up  and  was  continued  between  them,  and  they 
became  engaged.  She  fascinated  the  prize-master  to  that 
degree  that  he  turned  traitor.  He  resigned  from  the  Federal 
Navy,  proceeded  to  England,  and  they  were  married  in  Liver- 
pool, he,  from  that  time,  espousing  the  cause  of,  and  fighting 
for,  the  South. 

Subsequently  she  wrote  an  interesting  book  of  her  life  and 
adventures,  in  which  she  gives  a  graphic  account  of  all  the 
incidents  relating  to  her  courtship  and  marriage.  Her  career 
was  certainly  full  of  the  most  eventful,  heroic,  and  romantic 
features  ;  a  career  softened  and  varied  at  the  same  time,  and 
which  showed  that  hearts  could  be  captured  as  well  as  block- 
ade-runners. 

It  may  not  be  generally  known,  or  it  may  have  been  for- 
gotten by  persons,  that  Belle  Boyd  was  the  daughter  of  Genl. 
Boyd,  of  the  Confederate  Army,  who  died  while  a  prisoner  to 
the  Federal  forces.  He  possessed  vast  estates  in  Virginia, 
early  embraced  the  cause  of  Southern  independence,  and  was 
soon  entrusted  with  a  general's  command.  His  daughter  Belle 
enthusiastically  embraced  the  same  cause,  followed  her  father 
to  the  field  and  accompanied  him  throughout  his  campaign, 
and  on  two  occasions  heroically,  as  a  modern  Joan  of  Arc,  led 
on  the  troops  to  battle.  She  was,  however,  in  a  skirmish,  cap- 
tured and  made  prisoner  for  thirteen  months,  when  she  was 
exchanged  for  Genl.  Cochrane,  who  had  been  made  prisoner 
by  the  Confederates. 

Loud  and  frequent  complaints  were  made  by  the  public, 
during  the  war,  of  what  they  termed  "  inefficiency  of  the 
blockade"  by  the  frequent  running  in  and  out  of  vessels. 

The  Hon.  Gideon  Welles,  Secretary  of  the  Navy,  in  his  annual 


IO 

report  in  December,  1865,  a  few  months  after  the  war  had 
ended,  stated  in  that  report  that  the  following  number  and  class 
of  vessels  had  been  captured  or  destroyed  during  the  war  in 
attempting  to  run  the  blockade,  viz  :  steamers,  295  ;  sailing 
ships,- barks,  and  brigs,  44,  and  683  schooners,  making  a  total 
of  1,022  vessels.  The  amount  adjudicated  by  the  courts  for 
prizes  captured  and  brought  in  was  $24,500,000. 

The  estimated  amounts  for  those  run  ashore,  burnt,  and 
destroyed  was  $7,000,000,  making  a  total  of  $31,500,000 — a 
pretty  good  showing,  I  should  say. 

It  certainly  hurt  and  weakened  the  enemy  badly.  It  cut  off 
numerous  and  necessary  supplies,  and  it  lost  them  the  revenue 
from  their  cotton,  tobacco,  and  turpentine.  In  short,  it  did 
much  to  bring  the  war  to  a  close. 


